Dolls of Truth
by TheAmazingBookWorm
Summary: The world is suffering and the gods can't figure out why. The only answer they have is a prophecy and a hero.
1. Chapter 1

Dolls lined up on shelves around the room staring at him. The hero looks around in slight wonderment of how many there are. Hundreds and hundreds lined up, all different skin tones and hair colors, variations in the facial structure and size of the full doll.

"They're crocheted for the most part, before you ask. I made them. They represent people I've met in all the years I've been alive. So many people. Some are gods and goddesses, some are mortals, some are even demigods," the girl, no woman, she's been through too much, by the sound of her voice, to be called a girl, despite her young appearance, says. Her hand drifts across the edge of the shelves, stopping at a pair of dolls. One bigger than the other. A male and a female by the looks of it, the female was the smaller one, a child perhaps, with dark skin and bright emerald eyes that match the goddess in front of him.

"Does that mean they all have stories with them?" The hero asks. She looks at him in shock. It takes her a moment to answer. Maybe no one has ever asked that question before. Maybe no one had taken the time to.

"Yes, they do. Would you like to hear some of them, young hero?" He responds that he would faster than he expected himself to and takes a seat in one of the chairs in the room.

There are several chairs, all different styles, and colors. A motley of chairs really. Only one of them has a lamp on a stand next to it, while there's a coffee table in the middle of all the chairs. A comfy looking chair in bright yellows and oranges, something you could spend hours in and not be motivated to move. The chair he took was across from it, similar in style, but a complete opposite in color scheme with dark blues and reds.

The goddess's answering smile was worth coming here despite it not being the hero's reason, or maybe it is. Only the Fates can tell. She found him soon after he entered the Underworld, impressed that he made it past Cerberus, and then brought him here, into her home, in the opposite direction of Hades's castle, the direction he was originally heading. The prophecy echoes through his head. Short, sweet, and of course, a riddle.

_**To save you need truth.  
For truth is buried under  
The corruption above.**_

Her hands drift across the shelf once more before settling in front of one and picking it up. A doll with rich brown yarn as skin and a bright green, cotton dress, definitely Greek in style. It's almost equally brown yarn hair long and loose down its back somehow curled to look like the real thing. Next, she picked up two more that were next to each other, a male and female. The male has pale peach skin, dark brown eyes, and pitch-black hair slicked back and ending at its shoulders. The female looked similar to the first but the eyes were strikingly different. Green embroidery for eyes stares out from the second female doll, while the first has brown. The eyes on all of the dolls look so real. Like they were staring into your soul.

Sitting down at the chair with the lamp, the goddess sets them down on the stand, the green-eyed female between the other two.

"First, let me tell you how my parents met and the struggle they faced, still slightly face with my grandmother and Zeus. _This_ is the true story of how Persephone's _abduction_, really was an adventure of curiosity, love." She looks at the hero, staring into his eyes, reading his soul. "And of lies."


	2. Chapter 2

We start in Crete. This hasn't changed. A young woman picks flowers with the nymphs. Long brown hair flies behind her as she flits from patch to patch. Green eyes shining, smile wide and open. While the nymphs report to Demeter that her daughter was taken in the day, none of them knew when she was taken. It was done quietly. Helios reported hearing her scream but that was more or less acting. You'll learn more in a bit.

Why act? Well, Persephone was confined to the island. She explored all she could of the island. When Hades showed up, she was curious. Few know that Hades visited the island several times before Persephone went to the Underworld for the first time. I, Persephone, Zeus, and Gaia know.

And it's true that Zeus decided to give Persephone to his brother, but no one really knew anything of Persephone due to her confinement to Crete. So Hades visited first to watch her. He figured she was bored and that the Underworld may be good for her. So he attempted to take her away that night. B-

"Wait, wait, wait. I thought you said that she wasn't kidnapped?" The hero had cut in, confused.

"I actually never said that." The goddess's eyes sparkle while she smirks. "There is more to the story than the kidnapping." She knew that he would interrupt her. He can see it in her smirk. She knew what she was doing.

"How can I trust what you say? You said that Lord Hades and Lady Persephone are your parents. Who are you?" The hero has grown bolder, straightening up to question her. He immediately deflated after his words. He is speaking to a goddess no matter what. She could easily kill him for speaking out of turn. The gods had definitely done worse for such a thing.

She laughs. She laughs and laughs. He looks to her in shock. Will he be punished for not holding his tongue? Why is she laughing?

She stops laughing and straightens back up. Her whole composer changes. "Good, question these things. When things don't make sense or the facts don't line up, question things. Ask the questions. Yes the gods can be violent when questioned but the gods also have morals, different from mortals, but that means they do things different. That is how the stories you hear have different versions and conflicting facts. They give the mortals different stories then what might have actually happened. Mostly for their entertainment. And they withhold information from the mortal, such as my existence.

"I am the daughter of Hades and Persephone. My name is Aster. I am the goddess of just judgment in the Underworld."

The young hero squints his eyes at the goddess. She notes the odd multicolor look to his eyes. "I thought that there was a panel of now dead heros that judge the dead?"

"Yes, King Minos, Aeacus, and Radamanthus all judge where the dead should be placed. But I oversee the three of them. I make sure their judgments are correct, just and not overlapped with their own personal views. Sometimes the idiots send some king to a better place than they should be sent, for example. So, I fix it. And I give the three a punishment. Now I believe one should give their name in exchange for asking one of someone else."

The smile Aster gives is a mischievous one. The hero gives one back before answering, "Max Hunt, Son of Aphrodite."

"It's nice to meet you Max. now I think it's time to continue my story." Max nods in response, curling up into his chair, content in the plush as a cat in a pool of sunlight.

"Now where was I? Ah yes…"

So he attempted to take her away that night. But she was smart and was able to evade him. She knew someone was watching her. The trees can never stay silent for long when something new happens. The trees know a lot of what goes on around them and exchanging information with a sweet treat always works.

Her curiosity had her asking about who was watching her. And the watched became the watcher. She let him watch and inturn she watched him. Curiosity can be very infectious.

They didn't ever talk. But they locked eyes a few times. It was the last of these times that Hades decided to take her to the Underworld. He saw in her eyes a playfulness. She fluttered her eyes at him and smirked, continuing to pick flowers.

They say that Gaia helped with Persephone's kidnapping. Well She did help. She had flowers bloom at her feet. A species of narcissus commonly called paperwhites now. Their sweet smell was so strong and enchanting that Persephone had to pick them. Hades used this as his chance. He had the earth open up beneath her as she picked the clusters of small white narcissus. Persephone let out a scream in surprise and met Hades eyes as she fell. He hid within the forest near the flower field while he waited for the commotion the nymphs made at Persephone's disappearance to calm.

While the events that occured for Demeter ring mostly true in her search for her daughter, most tales don't tell of Persephone and Hades within the closest we have is the story told by Ovid. His information was given to him in a different tone than what happened. Ovid was enchanting to the nymphs of his home and some decided to tell their stories. One such was of Cyane and her supposed failure to rescue my dear mother. She saw my mother be carried away from Crete by Hades and misinterpreted what was going on. She overheard the teasing and sarcastic exchange of my parents finally speaking.

"You brute! What an exit taken to avoid my dear mother!" Exclaimed Persephone.

"Maybe I have learned from my brother; taken a page from his book," was the quick response of the Underworld's king.

Hearing them banter Cyane stood in the way proclaiming, " I will not allow you to go further, Hades, without the blessing of this goddess's mother. It's better to have the blessing of the mother than to have her anger! Anapis loved me and won me over the proper way and married me proper, not by fear, as you have done so!"

Reports on how Cyane was changed into her spring switch between her tears changing her and Hades himself changing her out of rage. The truth of the matter is that Persephone had changed her.

"What? Lady Persephone changed her?" Max sat up from his comfy curled position.

"Yes, she did. Persephone does mean 'bringer of death.' She didn't get that name just from becoming the Queen of the Underworld. No, she earned that title. Not to mention her parentage of Demeter and Zeus, two gods quick to anger." the air around Aster matter of fact.

Head cocked to the side, eyebrows furrowed. "Does she have a different name? Some of the other gods have different names and titles, yeah?"

"You are correct. My mother's name originally is Kore. It means 'young maiden' and the storytellers of Greece and Rome tended to misunderstand that it was her name being told not a description title." Aster was very relaxed. Lounging sideways in her armchair, head by her side table.

Max was expressive, moving positions often with the story and conversation. "So why did Lady Persephone change Cyane?"

"Well let me just continue then."

Persephone changed her. Persephone was confined to Crete, a fairly small island that was explored in its entirety by the time Hades arrived. The Underworld would give her places to explore. She is a very curious being. So she changed Cyane into a spring to get her out of her way.

The tales of Demeter tend to tell her side of the story pretty well so that I'll leave that out. A different tale for a different day.

Hades let the spring goddess explore, followed her from a distance. Steered her away from the more dangerous of areas. Though that usually took some convincing. She wouldn't drop it until he told her what was so dangerous about it, what was there, and so on with questions.

He learned to love her as he learned her quirks. She in turn learned to love him as he protected her.

It was Persephone realizing her love for the god of the dead that led her to the pomegranate grove. She knew she would have to see her mother again. She loved her all the same. But once she was up above, there would be no going back. Unless she ate the food of the Underworld. Then she would have to come back. So six seeds were eaten, no hesitation.

It was two months later that Hermes was sent down by Zeus to get the couple. Hades was unsure on going, didn't want to ignore his brother but didn't want to lose Persephone. He was none the wiser about the pomegranate seeds. Persephone was calm and collected, sure in the fact that she would return to this place, this place she could call home.

On Olympus Demeter was anxiously awaiting her daughter to return to her embrace. Zeus was relaxed, his knowledge of his promise to Hades guiding his behavior. Hades once there was tense, though his soon to be wife was the only one who could tell. Persephone was her normal self, excited and bubbly, hugging her mother once in reach.

Demeter, on releasing her daughter, launched into a triade towards Hades, angry in how her daughter was stolen from her. Kidnapped! How dare he! Zeus interjected on Hades's behalf that he was promised Persephone. That just turned her yelling to Zeus instead.

Once Demeter exclaimed how Persephone was never going back, that she was to return to Crete, Persphone interjected.

"I have to return, Mother." On her mother's confusion she continued. "I ate pomegranate seeds from the grove in the Underworld."

It took some time to calm down Demeter on claims of force and coercion but Zeus was able to work out the half year agreement that stands to this day.


End file.
